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Galatians 2:11-14 In Step With The Gospel

As we continue in Galatians Sunday, we come to the central passage of the book. In verses 11-21, Paul rebukes Peter for not walking in step with the gospel and then gives one of the clearest presentations of the gospel in the New Testament. Galatians 2:11-21 is a single unit, so we will read it in its entirety Sunday. But there is so much application throughout, we will exposit it in two parts. Sunday we will focus on v. 11-14 (though we will apply v. 15-16 as well) and then the following Sunday we will focus on v. 15-21. As we see Peter’s actions and Paul’s confrontation with him, we see the importance of thinking and living according to the truth of the gospel. In many ways, this could be the summation of growing in discipleship. When we bring all our life under the authority of the truth of the gospel; when we see our trials, our conflicts, our problems, our disappointments, and our brothers & sisters through the lens of the gospel. Though we are sinners and there is nothing good in us, Jesus has given us perfect righteousness before God. We are united with Christ and therefore with one another. And there is no higher standing before God than being in Christ. When we fail to respond, think, or act under the authority of that truth, we are not walking in step with the gospel. This affects every aspect of our lives from our marriages, relationships, occupations, trials, sufferings, and our fellowship with one another. The gospel is not just a message for unbelievers. It is for Christians as well. The gospel is our hope and our life. Sunday we will see what it looks like to live in step with who Jesus is and what He has done. 

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Galatians 2:1-10 Gospel Preserved For You

"...so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you" (Galatians 2:5)

This Sunday will be our first week meeting in the gym. As I write this, half the chairs are set up for the start of DNow. I am so proud of our staff who have worked diligently to make sure we are able to worship without hindrance in this new space. Because this is the start of a new adventure in the life of our church, I spent alot of time praying and trying to decide what we need to hear this week. But I realized that we are a people who need to hear from God so it doesn’t matter what I think we need to hear. Therefore, this Sunday we are returning to Galatians and picking up at the beginning of chapter 2. And once again, God has shown Himself faithful to speak exactly what we need to hear in this moment. In Galatians 2:1-10, Paul’s is continuing the testimony of his early ministry in order to show that he is preaching the true gospel which he received from Jesus Himself. At chapter 2 begins, he chronicles how he finally went to Jerusalem and set his gospel before the Jerusalem apostles, and he demonstrates that they affirmed his preaching and his mission to the Gentiles. They were all preaching the same gospel for there is only one true gospel. But as Paul makes his case, the truths we at FBC need to hear echo out from the text. The gospel is worth fighting for (v. 3-5), the gospel mission has been entrusted to us (6-9), and the gospel is what unifies us together (9-10).

As I prayed and prepared this text, the Lord has made it more abundantly clear that what we are building here is worth fighting for. It isn’t just a building - It is a culture of gospel saturated discipleship standing upon the inerrent word of God, and we must strive "so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you" [i.e. those who come after us].

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Romans 4:18-5:2 Raised For Our Justification

I am so excited to worship with you this coming Resurrection Sunday. Of course, we celebrate the gospel every time we gather, but this is the Sunday the church sets aside to specifically commemorate and revel in what Jesus Christ has done for us. Our Savior is alive and He as given us an eternal resurrection life! Romans 4:25 says, "[Jesus] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." So, this Sunday as we gather to worship, I hope to focus our hearts on what it means to be justified before God and how a sinner can be justified. We rightly give much attention to Jesus’ crucifixion when we speak of being justified before God. It is indeed there where the payment for our sin was made. (And we will of course speak much about it Sunday as well.) But the resurrection is also central to our justification. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says if Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. This Sunday we will talk about how the resurrection of Jesus applies to our justification before God. I hope to preach from Romans 4:18 - 5:2 in order to demonstrate this. I pray that God will use this Sunday to change hearts, draw people to Himself, and to deepen our love for His name. 

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Colossians 2:6-15 Walking In Christ

Although we have only completed the first chapter of Galatians, we will pause our study for the next two weeks. On Easter Sunday of course, we will focus on the resurrection and the gospel as we celebrate our risen savior. On Palm Sunday this week, I would like to focus our hearts more fully on what walking in the gospel entails, which is a theme we have seen already in Galatians. Being rooted and grounded in the gospel is the necessary and essential foundation for the maturing Christian life, and the life devoted to Christ’s commission to make disciples. As we drill down into this vitally important truth, I hope to draw our attention to a passage God used personally and powerfully in my life as I struggled to comprehend the growing Christian life - Colossians 2:6-15. I pray the Lord will use this text in your life just as He did in mine as we prepare ourselves for Resurrection Sunday, the transition of the building process, and our larger commission to make disciples of Christ.

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Galatians 1:11-24 God's Gospel Not Man's

As we continue in Galatians, Paul begins to make the case that he is indeed an apostle of Jesus Christ, and the gospel that he preaches is directly from God. Remember the issue in Galatia. False teachers had come in corrupting the gospel. They claimed that Gentiles had to trust in Jesus and be circumcised to be right with God. They also claimed Paul got his message second hand from the Jerusalem apostles and altered the message so Gentiles would more readily accept it. Paul will refute both of these accusations in chapter 1 and 2. He does so by relating the testimony of his conversion, his calling to preach, and the early years of his ministry. Paul shows that he received the gospel directly from the risen Christ, and it was Jesus himself that called him to preach it to the Gentiles. Paul will also show that for the first fourteen years of his ministry, he had little contact with the Jerusalem apostles and was not influenced by their preaching. Paul is not making the case that his gospel is different from the other apostles. It is exactly the same (as we will see in ch. 2). He is proving that he is an independent witness of the same gospel Jesus gave the other apostles. The gospel is God’s gospel - It is God’s message - It is God’s word to humanity. And while your conversion may not have been as outwardly spectacular as Paul’s, it is no less miraculous that God would call us by His grace and save us outside of any work we can do. 

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Galatians 1:6-10 No Other Gospel (Part 2)

Last week we read the first ten verses of Galatians 1, but we only worked through Paul’s introduction (1-5). Sunday we pick up with Paul stern and urgent warning in verses 6-10. Paul is amazed by the report that the Galatians are giving ear to false teachers so quickly. He can’t believe that they are turning to another gospel. As we learned last week, the false teachers in Galatia were commonly known as Judaizer. They claimed to be Jewish Christians. They preached that Jesus is the messiah, that he really died, and he really rose from the grave. But they said faith in Jesus and his work was not sufficient to save. They taught that to be accepted by God, one must believe in Jesus and be circumcised according to the customs of Moses. They were adding something to the gospel. 

Paul doesn’t tell the Galatians that this "other" gospel is close enough. He doesn’t find points of agreement with them. He says that this is a distortion of the gospel and, in fact, it is not another gospel at all! Then, with some of the most harsh language in the New Testament, Paul declares that if anyone, even a heavenly angel, preaches a gospel different than the one the Galatians received, they are accursed. They are under the wrath of God. Paul doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to the gospel. He is adamant that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. Anything added to the gospel is to be considered under God’s curse. It doesn’t matter who preaches it. Whether it is Paul himself, an angel from heaven, or even our own hearts - we are to reject it. This is what the Galatians should have done. This is why Paul is so astonished to hear they have not. This is what we must do when teachers, friends, preachers, angels, or even our own hearts try to convince us that we must add to Jesus’ work. We have everything in Christ. That is the gospel by which we are saved - and that is the gospel we must walk in as we follow Jesus.  

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Galatians 1:1-5 No Other Gospel

I am excited to begin studying Galatians this Sunday. Galatians is a short but very powerful letter. Paul writes to the churches he and Barnabas planted in Acts 14 because false teachers had begun corrupting the gospel. These teachers, commonly known as Judaizers, taught that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. He indeed died and rose from the grave, but in order to be accepted by God, trusting in Jesus life, death, and resurrection was not sufficient. Those who desired righteous before God must believe in Jesus, be circumcised, and walk according to the customs and traditions of Moses. Paul doesn’t take this lightly. Galatians is a scathing rebuke of what Paul says is a rejection of the true gospel. There is only one gospel. It is a complete and perfect salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Galatians isn’t just a primer to prepare believers to defend the gospel against false teachers. We need to defend the gospel against our own hearts. In this fallen world, believers still have a tendency to fall back into thinking that we are more accepted by God when we do good things, or less acceptable when we fail. We must continually preach the true gospel to ourselves. We must walk in the identity we have been given through Christ. This is what Paul warns the Galatians about. We cannot allow ourselves to be swayed away from the gospel from the outside teachings or the inside feelings.

Galatians is only six chapters so I would recommend reading the whole book (it may take 15-20 minutes). We will only cover the introduction Sunday, but verses 1-5 summarize the argument Paul makes through the whole book. He defends his authority as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, and he defends the only true gospel of grace. I look forward to diving into the word of God with you Sunday. Remember to set your clock forward!

Acts 28:16-31 The Gospel Unhindered

Sunday we come to the end of our study in the book of Acts. It has been quite a journey through the text. In the first chapter, Jesus said His disciples would be witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And that is what we have seen. We have followed the mission of His witnesses to all nations. We followed Peter, John, Phillip, Stephen, and Paul. We have seen much opposition to the spread of the gospel and the church. We have seen much hardship, suffering, and persecution of His witnesses, but we have also seen much faithfulness and perseverance as the Holy Spirit empowered them to be what Jesus commanded them to be. But this Sunday, we will come to the end of the story - or more accurately - the end of the beginning of the story.

As we look at the final verses in Acts, we will read an ending that isn’t quite what we are used to in good story-telling. We won’t have all our questions answered about Paul’s life. We won’t have resolution to the conflict we have seen through the last five chapters as Paul has gone from trial to prison to trial again. We won’t see him vindicated by those who oppressed and rejected him. In fact, we will see the same thing happen in Rome that has happened in every city in which Paul witnessed in. - THE SAME THING!

That isn’t the ending we want in the story, but it is the ending we need. Because the same will be true in our mission. This story is not about what happens to the messenger. This story is not about the messenger being vindicated in this life. It is about what Jesus is doing through His witnesses. It is about the gospel going forth to the world. That IS the story! And regardless of what events, cultural changes, political winds, or violent persecution arises, the gospel will continue being proclaimed until Jesus returns in glory. The gospel cannot and will not ever be silenced. To illustrate that point, God has allowed us the joy of baptizing believers in both services this Sunday. I hope you can join us in worshiping the King this Sunday.

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Acts 28:1-15 To The End Of The Earth

Over the next two Sundays, our journey through the book of Acts will come to an end. Yet the book doesn’t close with a final climactic ending. Luke leaves the story unfinished with Paul testifying unhindered in Rome. The story is not finished. Today, the church is still on the same mission begun so long ago by the first disciples. The gospel has gone out from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and continues to go to the ends of the earth. Chapter 28 picks up after the shipwreck which left Paul and company on an unidentified land. Here we are informed they have landed on the island of Malta, off the coast of Sicily. Paul will spend three months here before setting sail again for Rome. Although Paul’s journey to Rome is stalled, it is not without purpose. Paul finds kind and compassionate people on the island who show hospitality and care to he and his shipmates. God also does miraculous works of healing through Paul for the people of Malta over those three months. The storm and the shipwreck were not without purpose. God has brought Paul to this island because even these kind, friendly, compassionate, and moral people also need the gospel to be saved. The message of Christ is validated here as it was in the Temple of Jerusalem through miraculous signs. God has brought the kingdom promised to Israel all the way out here on the shores of this island. And when Paul finally does get to the vicinity of Rome, the church is there ready to receive him, encourage him, and fellowship with him as God fulfills His promise and Paul makes his way into the city. The church in Rome, established by unnamed and unknown believers, is God’s instrument in the city & comes out to receive this brother in Christ. And here we see that although Luke has focused our attention on the Apostle Paul for much of the book of Acts, the church - together - is the instrument that brings the gospel to the nations.

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Acts 27:27-44 An Anchor In The Storm Part 2

Sunday, we pick up where we left off in Acts 27. This chapter is devoted to the arduous sea voyage of Paul to Rome. Jesus told Paul in Acts 23:22 that Paul was being sent to Rome. But from the beginning of their voyage Paul was at the mercy of the wind and the decisions of others which led them into a violent storm. We saw that God’s promise doesn’t mean an easy journey. But we also saw the anchor which Paul held onto through all the obstacles and trials. He trusted in the promise of God. He told the people on the ship that an angel appeared telling him that he would get to Rome and no life would be lost, only the ship. And Paul tells them that he has faith in God that it will be as he has been told.

As we work through verses 27-44, we will see that God’s promise is also the only peace in the storm. Paul’s actions are opposite from the sailors and soldiers as the ship ultimately wrecks. But the peace that we see in Paul is not often what we think of as a "peaceful" response in the midst of trial. He is not passive, inactive. He does not "let go and let God." He acts with wisdom, with common sense as he prepares the men on the ship for what will be needed. The peace he demonstrates is peace that the promise will come to pass by God’s providence through their actions and decisions. It is a peace that is striving for the goal. And finally we see that God’s promise is always faithful. Even when the soldiers themselves decide to kill all the prisoners and threaten God’s promise that no life will be lost, we see God providentially working all things to fulfill his word. He is able - He is faithful to bring his witnesses all the way home. I hope to see you all this Sunday.

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Acts 27 An Anchor In The Storm (Part 1)

Acts 27 sees the beginning of Paul’s long journey to Rome. After all the trials and the two years of imprisonment, Paul is finally going to Rome just as Jesus promised him in Acts 23:11. It seems that Paul’s mission is no longer "on hold" and he is sailing by the will of God to the place God has ordained him to go. I would think there would be a brief note about the journey and then Luke would pick up telling us how Paul continued to witness in Rome, but that is not what happens here. Quite the opposite. Paul has a promise from Jesus that he will get to Rome, but every leg of this journey is fraught with difficulty from the winds, other people’s bad decisions, and an incredibly powerful and dangerous storm which ultimately shipwrecks the vessel. In fact, the 44 verses of chapter 27 are completely taken up with the difficulty and devastation of this journey. But how can this be? Paul is not Jonah. He is going exactly where God told him to go and doing exactly what God called him to do. As far as Scripture is concerned, Paul is directly in the center of God’s will - he is being faithful to his calling as a witness. And yet, all this suffering and difficulty swirls around every move he makes. 

What we find here is that even though Paul bears a promise of God that he will reach his destination safely, it doesn’t mean the journey will be easy. And even when it looks like Paul is at the mercy of the wind, other people’s decisions, and the massive storm, Paul holds to the only anchor that is sure and certain. He holds to the word of God. When everyone else has lost all hope of being saved, Paul can say "I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told." (Acts 27:25)

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